Artist Bio

Paul Thek was born in Brooklyn, New York in 1933. After spending time as a member of the Art Students League at Brooklyn's Pratt Institute in 1950, Thek received a degree from the Cooper Union School of Art in New York. The artist was awarded a Fulbright Fellowship in 1967 and a National Endowment for the Arts Grant in 1976. Notably, Thek was featured in the 1967 Carnegie International. He died of complications from AIDS in 1988. Thek has been the subject of numerous solo exhibitions, most of them posthumous, including at Kunstmuseum Luzern, Switzerland (2005); at Mai 36 Galerie, Zürich, Switzerland (2004, 1999, and 1993); at the Camden Arts Centre, London (1999); and at Barbara Gladstone Gallery, New York (1984). In 1995, the Witte de With, Center for Contemporary Art in Rotterdam organized a significant exhibition of Thek's work titled Paul Thek: The wonderful world that almost was, which traveled to the Neue Nationalgalerie, Berlin; Fundacio Antoni Tapies Barcelona; Kunsthalle Zürich/Museum für Gegenwartskunst; and MAC, galleries contemporaines des musées de Marseille. Thek has also been featured in numerous group exhibitions at venues including Matthew Marks Gallery, New York, P.S.1 Center for Contemporary Art, Long Island City, NY and Kunstmuseum Winterthur, Winterthur, Switzerland (all in 2006); and Andrea Rosen Gallery, New York (2005).